For the past week, the surprise hit song “Vanessa Van D” has been playing in my head. And I am not alone. has been a creator entry their own videos dancing to the song.
Infectious enthusiasm comes from Vanessa Van Deusen, a 17-year-old singer-songwriter from small town Carbondale, PA, who suddenly fell in love with TikTok.
On August 3, Van Deusen posted a video of himself performing his now-famous song at Lakeland Orchard & Cidery in the Scranton area. The setup was small-scale: a bandshell, a poster of himself on the wall, and plastic Adirondack chairs for attendees. Yet Van Deusen treated it like the greatest stage in the world.
The video achieved little popularity initially. A few weeks later, TikTok’s algorithm found it, and changed it to the For You page.
“I fell asleep and the video got about 30 likes,” Van Dusen told Yahoo. “I woke up and saw it was about 5,000. It just kept going up from there.”
It has now been viewed more than 2 million times. A second tiktok Van Deusen singing the same name-checking earworm — also in a small venue while his two best friends were swinging sticks — has racked up another 575,000 views.
“Yes, I am”: TikTok reveals Van D’s confidence
Social media videos go viral for all kinds of reasons. In this case, the honesty of Gen Z teens — a bright spot in a sometimes cynical world — along with that catchy “Van D, Van D, Van D” hook turned audiences into instant fans.
You can practically see it manifesting in the comments on these two videos.
“Well aren’t you a confident little player,” one person wrote.
Van Dusen attended the comments with an honesty that neutralized any potential shade: “Yes, I am,” she replied.
When another person wrote, “And the crowd softened up,” she replied, “They’re . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .”
Others reached for pop-culture comparisons. “‘A Little Bit Alexis’ Ran so Vanessa Van D could run,” one person wrote, referring to the memorabilia schitt’s creek Song. Rebecca Black’s name also came up. Black was 13 when “Friday” went viral in 2011 and became the object of widespread online ridicule.
Van Deusen swings a burning stick on the cover art of “Vanessa Van D”.
But Van Deusen’s comments section followed a different trajectory: Snark soon gave way to defense.
“Oh, let’s make fun of the girl who took a risk and put herself out there creatively!!!” Someone wrote. That comment has nearly 2,000 likes.
Van Deusen, who runs her own TikTok, has felt the love from supporters.
“I posted a Video A few days after the big event, thanks for all your compliments criticisms,” she says. “People were just blaming me in the comments, like, ‘Who’s saying anything bad?’ I have a fanbase now. They are very protective of me. That’s when it really hit me: People really want me to succeed.”
Van Deusen’s growing number of fans already have nicknames, she says, including “Fan Ds” and “Van Divas.”
Attention has brought opportunities for teenagers. Brands have offered to send him products, spotify Has appeared in her comments and is associated with the TikTok boy band Boy Throb.
TikTok has nothing on middle school
So where did Van Deusen, who graduated high school a year ago in June, find the chutzpah to not only get on the platform and become her own promoted woman, but also to tell TikTok she doesn’t bother? He has practice.
Van Deusen began singing in middle school, the age when, as she says, “girls can be cruel.” During those years, she says, classmates at her small private school bullied her.
“These girls were ruthless,” she says. “They were bullying me every day. It got to the point where I started thinking, ‘Do I really want to do this?’ And I’m like, ‘You know what? Yes.”
He channeled some of that hurt into music. One of his first songs, “Hey! (Are you just like me)” Was inspired by a friend who became a bully.
“Since then, people have criticized me,” she says. “But I know who my real friends are, and I’m forever grateful for them.”
How did ‘Vanessa Van D’ come to be?
Van Deusen is currently unsigned but has been meeting with the same record label executive for almost three years. Each time, he gave her a new task – first a song, then an anthem.
For the anthem assignment, she collaborated with her producer, “and that’s how we got ‘Van D’,” she says.
Even Van Deusen initially underestimated its appeal.
“When I first heard it, I was a little put off by it,” she says. “I still couldn’t get it,” she says. “But after a few days, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t get it out of my head.’
The timing of the song going viral could not have been better. Just days after the video’s release, Van Deusen flew to Los Angeles on a pre-planned trip to record more music.
“It brought everyone on board with me,” she says, referring to sharing behind-the-scenes photos on TikTok with her new followers. “It was amazing.”
“I want to be up there with the giants”
Van Deusen has been performing since the age of 2, starting with baton twirl and later adding singing and dancing. By high school, she was on fire.
Demonstration runs in the family. His mother owns the twirling school where he trained, while his father once played in a band. At 17, Van Deusen, an only child, relied on her parents to help her get ahead in the industry.
“They have been giving me the best guidance in making the right decisions about where to go and what to do,” she says. “As I grow up, I plan to have them on my team.”
Now that she has found fame on TikTok, it is going full speed ahead.
“I’ve wanted to be in the light since I was a kid,” she says. “It’s becoming more and more clear to me that this is a real thing – that this can happen, and now that it’s happening – it inspires me even more.”
Van Deusen points to Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter, two Pennsylvania native stars who may have potential beyond their hometowns.
“I’ve grown up [listening to] Taylor and Sabrina and I have watched them grow and flourish,” she says. “Knowing that they’ve grown as much as they have definitely impacts me. [I think:] ‘Yes, I’m from a small town in Pennsylvania, but that doesn’t stop me from going to Los Angeles or Nashville or New York.’
Ultimately, she hopes that other young artists will one day look up to her the way she once looked up to her idols.
“I want someone younger than me to say, ‘Look, she’s Vanessa Van D,’ and be like, ‘Wow, I want to be like her someday,'” Van Deusen says. “I want to be the next Taylor. I want to be the next Sabrina. I want to be up there with the legends.”
For now, he is where he is. His next show Oct. 11 at Scranton’s Neighbor Park, followed by a meet and greet.